We are living in an apostolic age where increasingly more people are rejecting the tenets of Catholicism and the belief and worship of God the creator. So, in this apostolic age, every practicing Catholic becomes, whether they are ready for it or not, a witness and an evangelist through their outward behavior.
The role of business leaders can have a profound and exponential impact on this evangelization. They can reach everyone who interacts with their business. Saint JoseMaria Escriva wrote (paraphrasing here) that everyone should be sanctified, blessed or uplifted through their experience with your business. Think of the power of that!
After many conversations with business leaders around the country, I know that many employees are struggling with the stresses of life. They are showing increased anxiety, agitation, anger and depression. Many of them do not have healthy relationships, resilient marriages or deep friendships. They are deeply unhappy and have no clue what it takes to attain true happiness. It’s reasonable to assume that if you’re a business owner or leader, you are likely noticing these same issues with your employees, which in turn can affect your customers, vendors and other stakeholders as well.
If you agree with St. Escriva, Catholic business leaders are the key to sanctifying all those who interact with their business. I want to focus on the special vocation you have to help your employees flourish.
There are a couple of things a Catholic business leader can do to combat this unhappiness and help with their flourishing. Firstly, they can create a list of company values rooted in the human virtues of magnanimity, humility, self-control, courage, justice and prudence. These are the habits that, when tied to actions or activities at work, can help form employees and assist them on their path to personal excellence through learning about and living these ancient virtues. A Catholic business owner I know ties new employee training to the company’s core values. He also refers to those core values when an employee receives acclaim or correction to help them understand how their actions impacted the common good.
For example, if an employee was reported for losing their cool at a job site, this business owner would have a conversation on the virtue of self-control, or if an employee was taking short-cuts in a process that damaged the relationship with a customer, a conversation about the virtue of justice — giving the other their due — is warranted.
A Catholic leader can instruct, correct, encourage and motivate employees this way. It also protects the dignity of employees by having conversations about virtuous actions that align with core values of the business or non-virtuous actions that run against the values of the business. This method also strengthens the community of employees because the conversation is about personal and professional growth and achieving excellence. It treats employees as the humans they are and tells them they and their actions do matter.
In his discussion of work in Laborem Exercens, Pope St. John Paul II distinguishes between objective and subjective work. Work in the objective sense is the physical aspects of work, the actual job an employee does, with its necessary tools, machines, warehouses and office buildings. Work in the subjective sense is the employees themselves which encompasses their thoughts, tacit knowledge, skills and actions. Back in English class many years ago, I learned the structure of a sentence. The subject performs the action while the object is acted upon.
When someone says “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business” when firing an employee or ending a relationship with a vendor, they are treating those relationships as objects to be used and discarded rather than as humans to be respected. I’m not saying to hold on to bad employees or vendors, but firing an employee or vendor can be done while upholding the dignity of that person.
A second way to help combat employee unhappiness and increase their flourishing is through a Catholic business leader’s demeanor guided by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Work is a second home for many employees. How do they view their “work home”? Is it a place they enjoy going to in the morning that leads to fulfillment, and thus happiness, or is it hell?
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. These gifts that work within the soul of a Catholic business leader should be the driver of their actions and decisions. Employees, and others who interact with the business, will see those gifts in the observation of a leader’s external behavior that increasingly reflects Christ.
Do they see a leader with a charitable heart or one that is driven by selfish decisions? Do they see a leader with a joyful countenance or one of despair; one of peace or anger; patience or impatience; kindness or meanness; goodness or badness; a generous spirit of time or money and greediness; a gentle behavior or aggressiveness; modesty or vanity; self-control or perpetual indulgence; chastity or one that uses impure language or actions; and lastly, faithfulness in God or faithlessness?
It’s a simple fact that humans learn from others. Make no mistake, your employees are watching you and will model their own behavior on what they see. Do they see Christ who leads all to happiness, or do they see something else?